Benton City was awarded a $478,000 Community Development Block Grant to improve its wastewater system.

The Benton City Board of Trustees heard updates about the grant and plans for the impending sewer improvement project at its Jan. 27 City Hall meeting.

Cindy Hultz, executive director of the Mark Twain Regional Council of Governments, said the amount received is fantastic considering the size of the village.

The total project cost is $758,000, and Benton City will put in a total of $280,000 — $140,000 in matching cash and an additional $140,000 private match, which will be a loan taken out by Benton City, Hultz said.

“We have come up with $140,000 of our sewer bill,” John Heathman, chairman of Benton City’s Board of Trustees, said. “From what I understand, that’s a lot less than what we were going to do in the past.”

The wastewater improvement grant will address Benton City’s sewer system — specifically its lagoon. According to City Clerk Diana Holguin, bad drainage has led to high levels of nitrates in the creek that pose a threat to a native frog, which put Benton City in the crosshairs of the Department of Natural Resources.

Heathman said Benton City has been paying $400 per month to have its water tested for years, so time is of the essence and the village has already waited a long time for this project to come to fruition. He added that the village started the process nearly 10 years ago, but the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt.

At that time, Holguin said Benton City had 67 hookups, but now they are down to 63.

“To divide that over half a million dollar project between 63 hookups, it’s going to take us years to pay it off,” she said.

The project engineer is Klingner and Associates of Hannibal. Heathman said the plan is to remove the berms in what is currently a three-cell lagoon and make it one lagoon. A center pivot and pump will be added to ensure it will never overflow. Benton City also recently purchased property north of the lagoon so it can irrigate the land.

“Hopefully it’ll be done this year,” he added.

Benton City utilized the Mark Twain Region Council of Governments to assist them in securing the grant for this project. Devyn Campbell, fiscal officer and a community planner was the grant writer for the project.

“If it was not for her helping us, I don’t think we would have got it,” Holguin said.

Now that the process has started again, it is a waiting game to see if the project will be rebid.